Operational Fatalities And Casualties

In this section Tables 3.8 and 3.9 present the numbers of fatalities and casualties involving personnel deployed on operations. In agreement with the Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans, DASA are responsible for reporting on all medium scale operations since 2001. Data on operations smaller than medium-scale are not centrally compiled. The operations reported on below reflect those operations for which data have been published on the MOD website. The tables present the numbers of fatalities and casualties since reporting began in 2001 up until end of 2009. The data include Naval Service, Army (including Gurkhas), RAF, MOD Civilians and Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) personnel.

The operations reported on in these tables reflect those operations for which data have been published on the MOD website, where further information on field hospital admissions and aero-medical evacuations is also available for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq:

Tables 3.10 and 3.11 present the number of Armed Forces personnel returned to the UK from Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of an injury or illness who have been treated at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM) and the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC) Headley Court each year from 8 October 2007 until 31 December 2009.

Data are compiled by Defence Analytical Services and Advice from the Defence Patient Tracking System (DPTS) which commenced on 8 October 2007. The DPTS was set up to enable the capture of tracking data for aeromedically evacuated patients at the place where healthcare is being delivered along the care pathway. Patients receiving treatment that were aeromed prior to this date may not be included. Since October 2008, the figures presented include Armed Forces personnel that have returned on routine flights and subsequently been referred to DMRC for an operational-related injury or illness.

The DPTS is not a medical or welfare record system; medical records are held on the Defence Medical Information Capability Programme; welfare records are held in single Service welfare databases. The DPTS is not an authoritative record of personnel and demographic details, these details are held on the Joint Personnel Administration system.

In many cases totals presented within Tables 3.10 and 3.11 will be less than the sum of their parts. This is for a number of reasons:

• Patients may be treated as an in-patient and as an out-patient (or also as a residential patient at DMRC) within the same location during the same time period. However, these patients will only be counted once in 'All RCDM' and 'All DMRC' totals within each time period.
• Patients may be treated at both RCDM and DMRC within the same time period. However, these patients will only be counted once in the 'Number of patients seen at RCDM & DMRC' totals within each time period.
• Patients may attend both RCDM and DMRC for their injury or illness. New patients are counted within the time period that they attended their first appointment at either of these locations. For example, during 2009 there were two patients from Op TELIC treated for the first time at RCDM for Battle Injuries. These patients however, were first treated at DMRC in 2008. Therefore they are accounted for in the 'New patients at RCDM' figure for Battle Injuries in 2009.

These statistics do not represent patient burden at RCDM or DMRC since they only include patients returned from deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan. These statistics do not represent numbers treated at any point in time, they only provide the numbers treated during a given month or year. These statistics currently include RCDM and DMRC patients as these are the main facilities for treatment for patients aeromedically evacuated from theatre.

More detailed information on these statistics can be found in the Monthly Iraq and Afghanistan UK Patient Treatment Statistics reports which are published on the DASA website.